Enable-IT 860 Rev A Ethernet Extender

The 860 LRE kit works fine in the lab for the out of the box test, but when I placed them in the field all I get is a flashing VDSL lightThe issue clearly is the wiring between the 860 CO and CPE units. Check your cabling and connections. The 1-pair wire run between the 860 VDSL ports should be a straight through, continuous run with no breaks or connections.If you are using telephone wiring, make sure there are no telephone punchdown blocks on the wire. If there are telephone punchdown blocks connecting the wire between the 860 VDSL (RJ-11) ports, remove the wire from the blocks and use Telco butt clips (jelly bean connectors) to bridge the wire together.

Telco punch down blocks add interference and can introduce other electrical paths that will degrade performance or interfere with the data signal communications. The 1-pair or wire used should be terminated directly into a RJ-11 Telco jack and inserted into the VDSL port of each 860 unit. Also the signal on telephone wiring will only run approx. 3,000ft and 6,000ft on CAT-5e or better.

If using telephone wire and experience performance or connectivity issues, you can try to improve the signal by attaching a segment (25 – 50ft) of twisted pair (1-pair) to each end of the telephone wire before it goes into the VDSL port of each 860 unit. the Twisted pair will amplify the signal.

Be aware of other high speed communications ruining over the same CAT5e, 25, 50 or 100 pair of Telco cabling as they may bleed over other wires and cause interference/noise on your 1-pair of wiring between the Ethernet Extenders. Twisted pair wire (CAT5, CAT6, CAT3) will always give better performance than telephone wire.

We highly recommend a quick test to ensure the working order of your 860 units.

To do this, please use one of the Telephone patch cords provided and attach each end to the VDSL (RJ-11) port on the 860 units. Apply power to the 860 units and you should see the Green VDSL light (solid) which indicates the units see each other and have synced up.You can further test the units by attaching a LAN device to the Ethernet Data port of each 860 unit. Test your data connectivity and LED operational status to become familiar with their operation before installing in the field. If this test fails, contact our Technical support for further troubleshooting or replacement. It is key to note that your throughput on this short distance will not be accurately reflected as these units are tuned for extended Ethernet performance – something you can’t do with standard Ethernet distances.

LED indicators will provide visual operational status of the 860 units.

VDSL ( Solid) – Indicates the 860 units see each other and have synced up.

If this LED fails to light Solidly, the wiring between the CO and CPE is incorrect, the wiring may have a short, too many paths (connections) or the distance between the units exceeds the specs for your type of wiring.

LNK/ACT – Indicates local LAN is visible and connected with activity.

CPE – Indicates the visibility of the CPE unit from the CO unit.

CO – Indicates the visibility of the CO unit from the CPE unit.

PWR – should be lit when 5v adapter is connected and powered.

100 – Indicates the presence of a 100Mbps LAN connection on the local side.

Can we use Telco wiring between our Ethernet Extender units, like 25-Pair or 100-Pair ?

Yes, Telco wiring can be used between our Ethernet Extender units. Any wiring used has to be as contiguous as possible with no other connections like a Telco punch down block or extensions.Telco punch down blocks add interference and can introduce other electrical paths that will degrade performance or interfere with the data signal communications. The 1-pair or wire used should be terminated directly into a RJ-11 Telco or RJ-45 LAN jack and inserted into the LINE port of each 860 unit.If using Telco wire over 300ft, add a piece of twisted pair wiring to each end of the wire connection to the Ethernet Extender. This will boost the signal strength and increase your performance.

Be aware of other high speed communications ruining over the same CAT5e, 25, 50 or 100 pair of Telco cabling as they may bleed over other wires and cause interference/noise on your 1-pair of wiring between the Ethernet Extenders.Twisted pair wire (CAT5, CAT6, CAT3) will always give better performance than telephone wire.

Are existing Telcom circuits suitable to use between the Ethernet Extender units?

Typically No – Telcom circuits are just that – circuits (loops and many connections through Telco punchdown blocks) and not direct pair of wires without any connecting points.Telco circuits frequently have other high frequency communications running nearby on on other pairs that interfere with Ethernet Extender equipment and signals.

I have a flashing VDSL LEDs on each 860 unit and solid LAN lights, but network works but slow.

The flashing VDSL, is an indication of interference on the wire between the 860 units.

Check your cabling and connections. The 1-pair wire run between the 860 VDSL (RJ-11) ports should be a straight through, continuous run with no breaks or connections. If you are using telephone wiring, make sure there are no telephone punchdown blocks on the wire. If there are telephone punchdown blocks connecting the wire between the 860 VDSL ports, remove the wire from the blocks and use Telco butt clips (jelly bean connectors) to bridge the wire together.

Also the signal on telephone wiring will only run approx. 3,000ft and 6,000ft on CAT-5e or better.

If using telephone wire and experience performance or connectivity issues, you can try to improve the signal by attaching a segment (25 – 50ft) of twisted pair (1-pair) to each end of the telephone wire before it goes into the VDSL (RJ-11) port of each 860 unit. the Twisted pair will amplify the signal.

On the 860 CO unit, you can change the DIP-2 and DIP-4 switch to the off position (default is ON)

This will increase the Signal Noise Ratio higher more tolerant and change the performance for better quality on your short distance.Leave the CPE end alone as far as DIP switches.

What is the difference between the CO and CPE labeled units? And where do they go?

The CO / CPE designation are Telco Carrier terms –

CO – Central Office Equipment

CPE – Customer Premise Equipment

Our Ethernet Extenders are labeled with this CO/CPE identification primarily for our stock packaging and RMA repair. COs will only talk to CPEs.

The placement of the units are interchangeable and irrelevant to their operation or performance.

What does a flashing ACT light mean?

A Flashing or Blinking ACT (Activity) light denotes the presence of Local LAN traffic or activity. It does not necessarily confirm the transmission of data between remote ends of an Ethernet Extender.

We use the designations for shipping, RMA repair only as they have no bearing on placement/performance for our Ethernet Extenders. Typically you would place the CPE at the remote end and the CO at the local end for reference only.

Customers that order several pairs of like Ethernet Extenders and mix up the pairs will need to know that only CPE’s talk to CO’s. Like units CO to CO and CPE to CPE will not sync as the programming is different on each.

How do I connect two routers together with an Ethernet Extender?

Routers or switches can be connected together easily as all our Ethernet Extender kits are transparent to the LAN.

You first need to figure out how the routers/switches will talk to each other on respective ports. Some routers such as Linksys, D-Link, Netgear have a WAN port.Typically one router will be setup as a master router offering DHCP IP addressing to clients. Make sure the second router or others are not offering DHCP as well.

To attach an Ethernet Extender kit, on the second router, you may need a Ethernet Cross-Over cable in order to make a physical link. See example below.

1) Figure out how Linksys to Linksys works (What ports will connect to bridge) On Linksys A the SAT internet has to be in the WAN port.

Linksys B needs to have it’s WAN port connected to a LAN port of Linksys A (The 860 kit is transparent, therefore you will need to see what patch cord will work to get an 860 to connect to the Linksys B WAN port correctly) – you may need a crossover cable to make it work properly.

2) Leave the 860 connected to Linksys A LAN port on a standard Ethernet patch cord.

Is the data bath between two extenders electrically isolated from the power supply? If not is it possible to provide isolation to say 400VDC?

The 895 / 890 /820 the no the data path cannot be isolated for the internal power components. 400VDC will jump through the tightly designed components inside and damage all the chips.

On the 860 / 865 units, we do have built in lightning protection, however a load of 400VDC will burn out this protection and render the unit interoperable.

All the Extender Kits are designed for 5v 2W AC and if you need to power these via DC power you can purchase aftermarket 5v 2W DC adapters 2.1mm center power head.

Is there a way to run multiple Ethernet Extender Kits on the same wiring, say on the same CAT5e wiring or on a 25-pair Telco wire run?

The 860 LRE Kit can communicate on very high frequencies and therefore by nature these frequencies bleed over into surrounding wires. We highly recommend you do not place multiple extender kits or use on lines that have other high frequency signals (such as Digital PBX or other telecommunication circuits from a carrier) on the same wire or surrounding wires. Always uses separate runs(wiring) for Ethernet extender kits as to maximize the throughput. You may be successful in isolating different pairs in a 25,50 or 100 pair Telco bundle, however this is up to your own trial and error.